'Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story': 'Erased' history of one of the greatest R&B artists who called Toronto home

Written and directed by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee, executive produced by Elliot Page, the documentary Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story gives us an unprecedented look at one of the greatest R&B artists of all time and first Black trans performers, who disappeared for 40 years. Told in her own voice, using hours of interviews conducted before her death, the film is an authentic and deeply moving education of the life of this music icon.

As we find out in the film, when Shane's family inherited her belongings after her death, Shane's nieces Andrenee Majors Douglas and Vonnie Moore never knew about her. They shared that it was painful to know there was a relative who lived down the street from them they never got the opportunity to meet.

"I felt shocked, in disbelief, then it went from shocked and disbelief to, I'm mad at my family," Moore told Yahoo Canada in Toronto during the 2024 Hot Docs festival. "Once we found out that others knew and we didn't know, then we were mad. I was mad."

"Initially, for me, was pain," Douglas added. "Because I just previously lost my mom and Jackie looks just like my mom."

"It was so emotional for me [Vonnie Moore] had to step in, because I couldn't get it together. Then it went to, why? No one ever told us. Jackie lived five minutes from us for 40 years. And then it went from why to anger. Like, this is our family. Hindsight, looking back, you can understand why maybe some choices were made, but we still should have known who she was, and we didn't."

'It just shows how much trans history gets erased'

Mabbott heard the Jackie Shane Live album about 12 years ago and was perplexed by why people don't know about this album and this amazing artist, particularly when the music was made in his hometown of Toronto. When he realized Shane was "nothing but rumours" for more than 40 years, but found out she was alive in 2016, he eventually was able to connect with her.

They spoke for over 100 hours in what ended up being the last year of her life, and after a year of talking she agreed to make this documentary, but passed away before they started filming.

That's when Mabbott met Douglas and Moore who were "incredibly protective" of Shane's estate, but felt Mabbott had the integrity to work on this film, which was produced in conjunction with Trans Film Mentorship, prioritizing Black trans, non-binary and queer professionals in all areas of the project.

"When I found out that people hadn't heard of her, that really intrigued me," Rosenberg-Lee said about joining Mabbott to work on the film. "It just shows how much trans history gets erased."

Racism in Toronto 'was there with a smile on its face'

As Shane's journey goes, she moved from Nashville in the Jim Crow era of the American south to Toronto, performing sold out shows in the Canadian city, with the song "Any Other Way" in particular becoming a hit. But that didn't mean Shane didn't face racism and discrimination in Toronto as well, with the film highlighting that famed radio station CHUM did not want to play her music.

"We weren't 100 per cent sure what we were going to find but we knew we didn't want to lie about it if we did find it," Rosenberg-Lee said. "I will actually give some credit to the [National Film Board] because they said ... 'If you guys want to go there, we want to go there,' and they didn't want us to be afraid of that."

"The amount of racism that was happening at that time was maybe less, relative to Jim Crow, but it was still there and it was there with a smile on its face, in a Canadian way," Mabbott added. "We will repeat that history if we don't learn from it and it's something that, as Canadians, we pat ourselves on the back for not being that."

"Jackie and many others, ... the challenges and the evil they would have faced in this country was huge. And I think it's really dangerous that we haven't always recognized that, or that we've chosen to see it as a different way. And Jackie loved this country, and it was different, but I think it's really, really important. Jackie talked about leaving Jim Crow and then coming back many years later, and she's coming back and Donald Trump's in office, and she's coming back and trans rights are at risk. ... How much has changed? She sometimes said it might even be worse. I think there's something like that in Canada, if we think there's no racism then we're in really, really big trouble."

While Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story features interviews with a number of people Shane's story has touched, including Makayla Walker and Sandra Caldwell, Douglas and Moore hope the following generations of their family see that Shane "never wavered from who she was" and that she leaves a legacy of "healing."

"A lot of trans people now, Black trans people who struggle with their parents, who feel like they've had to move out, that they've been rejected, they carry that hurt, they carry those wounds very similar to Jackie," Rosenberg-Lee said. "And I can see in Jackie, not having known [her nieces], there's pain there. There's sadness. There's that lack of healing. There's that feeling of ongoing rejection."

"With the film ... I hope that people look at it, and those trans people that are feeling alone are like, 'Wow, multiple generations later though, I could be accepted. Like even if my parents want nothing to do with me, nieces and nephews and multi generations are ready to hear my story and ready to accept me,' which I think is just incredibly healing for everybody."

Douglas and Moore stressed that through this film, this is Shane's time to "fully live."

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is now in select Canadian theatres